Billy Peard
Billy Peard (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent District 2. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 4, 2020.
Peard completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Billy Peard was born in Washington, D.C. He grew up in Southern Arizona. He earned an undergraduate degree from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, in December 2007 and a law degree from Vermont Law School in May 2013. His professional experience includes working as an attorney.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Arizona House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Arizona House of Representatives District 2 (2 seats)
Incumbent Daniel Hernandez Jr. and Andrea Dalessandro defeated Deborah McEwen in the general election for Arizona House of Representatives District 2 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Daniel Hernandez Jr. (D) | 37.3 | 46,467 |
| ✔ |  | Andrea Dalessandro (D) | 35.5 | 44,296 |
 | Deborah McEwen (R)  | 27.2 | 33,956 | |
| Total votes: 124,719 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 2 (2 seats)
Incumbent Daniel Hernandez Jr. and Andrea Dalessandro defeated Luis Parra and Billy Peard in the Democratic primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 2 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Daniel Hernandez Jr. | 33.2 | 13,670 |
| ✔ | | Andrea Dalessandro | 29.4 | 12,116 |
 | Luis Parra | 19.8 | 8,172 | |
 | Billy Peard | 17.5 | 7,224 | |
| Total votes: 41,182 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 2 (2 seats)
Deborah McEwen advanced from the Republican primary for Arizona House of Representatives District 2 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Deborah McEwen | 100.0 | 13,283 |
| Total votes: 13,283 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Billy Peard completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Peard's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Billy grew up on the lower edge of the middle class in Southern Arizona and was educated in Arizona public schools (back when we ranked 34th in the nation rather than 46th). For many years, Billy worked as a lawyer representing DREAMers and asylum-seekers. From 2017 to 2019, he worked as a staff attorney for the ACLU.
Billy was inspired to public service as a high school student when he served as an intern in Washington, DC and found himself inside the U.S. Capitol on the morning of 9/11. During the ensuing months, Billy was an eyewitness to history, working on the House Floor as the nation ushered in the post-9/11 era.
Today, Billy is running for the Arizona House of Representatives because it's no longer enough to elect Democrats who merely vote against bad policies without offering anything better. From underfunded schools to statewide drought conditions, we are facing crises that demand creative and bold solutions that Billy is prepared to take on- Legislating matters: I am running for the legislature in order to legislate - to craft bold solutions to our biggest challenges. Too often, our legislators (of both parties) do everything but legislate.
- Character matters: In this era, we should lead from a position of humility. Our leaders should legislate recognizing that no single person has all the answers, and that leadership is seeking out others who know more
- Facts matter: I am running to pursue evidence-based solutions in a state that faces ever-changing complexities. Just as in the White House, we have experienced in the State House a lack of genuine research and study of the issues.
Water: Because, after all, we are in Arizona.
Education: Because in Arizona, we are ranked close to 50th place on almost every measure of K-12 performance.
Income Inequality: Because in Arizona, we have incrementally reduced taxes for the rich almost every year since the early 1990s.
Climate Change: Because in Arizona, our community will suffer (and has already suffered) disproportionately as a result of climate change.
Criminal Justice Reform: Because in Arizona, we incarcerate a larger percentage of our population than most other states
I believe that humility is not weakness. It is not indecisiveness. Bold and ambitious proposals can originate from a place of humility. Humility is having the self-confidence to alter one's views upon receiving new facts. Humility is constantly striving to increase one's understanding of the world. It means seeking out new facts rather than seeking to re-enforce what we already believe.
Some people are remembered as having been prolific because they published lots of novels. I would like to be remembered as someone who sought out problems in our state and proposed logistically and politically realistic solutions to those problems. I want to be remembered as someone who didn't seek office to pursue one or two issues, but rather someone who sought to understand the interplay of everything.
Ten years later, my colleagues and I had the privilege of visiting Shanksville, Pennsylvania to honor the heroes of Flight 93 and to meet the local first responders in that community. If it had not been for the passengers of Flight 93 forcing down that plane over the farm fields of Pennsylvania, I may not be here today.
If there were a choice, I would prefer to eliminate the upper house (ie, state senate) and expand the size of the lower house to give greater political representation to our communities. I wrote a guest opinion article about this in the Nogales International newspaper on March 13, 2020:
Regrettably, in Arizona we see a complete lack of leadership from our legislature. In times of crisis (such as during the COVID-19 crisis) we see the governor's office stepping up to fill the leadership void. I am grateful to see some leadership emanating from Phoenix at this moment. I only wish that the legislature had been the governmental body leading during this time.
The legislative process is a process of deliberation, negotiation, and compromise. Compromise and negotiation is not possible without deep relationships with those you disagree with.
I believe that real change happens at the state level. Increasingly, the U.S. Congress is ineffective at addressing the most pressing daily challenges of our time. It's time to set lofty goals, at the local and state level.
On April 10, 2020, I published a guest opinion in the Tucson Sentinel about this topic:
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 17, 2020
